art
Many of these drawings were first shared on Instagram as part of my art activism project where I posted a daily drawing for Palestine for 274 days, from Dec 8, 2023 to Aug 30,2024.
A Drawing a Day for Palestine Until a Permanent Ceasefire is in Place // Jul 27:
"When the fight gets too heavy, one thing we can do is approach it differently. One of my favourite concepts I’ve come across in the past year is imagination activism.
The term was coined by @phoebetickell, the founder of UK organisation @moral_imagining . According to her an imagination activist is someone powered by imagination and the vision and tools to make the world better for everyone.
Often we think of activism as fighting/trying to stop what’s going horribly wrong in the world. It can feel like being on a ship that we can see is both falling apart and on course towards an iceberg, and rallying up people to fix the gaping holes and convince the people in power to change course.
The work of an imagination activist on the other hand is to ask: what else could the world be? What do I want for every child being born in the world today, and those born 200 or 1000 years from now? What do I want for all the other creatures? What would be beautiful and how can I start building that?
Imagination activism is about building new vessels, and looking for new ground so that we can all leave the terrible sinking ship. The ship is fundamentally broken, it cannot be saved.
It’s built on colonialism and extraction and exploitation of almost all of us, some more than others. This is its essence. Good riddance ship.
Of course, fighting against existing cruelties is also necessary. It is about preserving life so that we can rescue as many people (and species) as possible. But the ship can’t sail indefinitely and without the dreamers building new land, we will all drown.
In my daily life I think of imagination activism as the work of building pockets of the future I want to live in: it can be a short moment in my day, an action I take, a way I show up… these are ways of practicing the world I want to live in. We can’t wait for a different world to emerge to start living in it. I believe it goes the other way around. So leave the ship in all the ways you can. Stop giving it your money, energy, talents and dreams. There’s something else waiting for us."
A Drawing A Day for Palestine Until a Permanent Ceasefire is in Place // Mar 30, 2024
I want to gather up all the children: every malnourished baby, every injured and traumatized child, every child in danger, every child in poverty, all children growing up in a world threatened by runaway climate change and rapid loss of wondorous biodiverse life (all this harm in the service of more profits for the richest individuals).
I want to carry them all in my arms and take them somewhere else, somewhere where no baby’s ribs are visible, a place where we take care of each other (and ”each other” includes all of life). I want to take them somewhere where you can see the night sky wherever you are, unhindered by light pollution, where no one knows the sound of a bomb, where there are no weapons designed to kill, where children hear birdsong and not drones.
I want to take the children to another world, a world that is possible, where the economy serves life and not the other way around, where we use our collective genius to meet everyone’s needs: cure the sick, take care of each other, build swings and treehouses fit for the disabled and ablebodied alike and construct warm homes for everyone in caring and green neighbourhoods.
Let’s go kids, we’re building you another world where you can grow roots and grow old where you want, in peace and safety. Where you can love who you want, be who you are and never once wonder if you are enough or too much. A world where it is no shame to ask for help and where it doesn’t feel wrong to rest. Where no one’s worth is determined by their gender, their appearance, their religion or lack thereof, their productivity or their origin.
I don’t want to give a speck more of my skills, my energy, my life, my reputation, my efforts to this world that harms you. I want to direct everything I have to this other world, the other one that is possible, the one that you, and your children, and their children, and their children so fully deserve.
We have all the power to create it and don’t you for a minute doubt it or give your power away.
The time has come. Let’s go.
A Drawing A Day for Palestine Until a Permanent Ceasefire is in Place // Feb 3, 2024
At the moment, the future exists only in our imaginations. It is shaped by what we do in the present. No one knows what will happen tomorrow, next week, in 50 years. That’s why it’s really important that the stories we tell ourselves about the possible futures and about our ability to shape them are helpful. That they can actually inspire us to act in alignment with the future we want to see - not the one were afraid of.
Always try and choose the stories that are useful and take us forward. The stories that serve the powers that be? Challenge them when you hear them. Whatever you do, don’t let them guide you. They will lure you into inaction, apathy & complicity. They seduce us to blend in with the crowd and to certainly not show any courage.
If a story on the other hand feels empowering, gives you strength, inspires you, gives you goosebumps, makes you want to live up to it, makes your heart swell, gives you ideas on what you can do… run towards it. Spread it. Write it down. Put it in a song.
I think one of the most useless and harmful stories I come across regularly is that most people don’t care or are somehow inherently bad. What can you do with that story? And what proof have we got that it’s true? I know I wasn’t born fighting for Palestine or working to stop climate catastrophe. It wasn’t something I learned at home either. My worldview is nothing more than a product of the random experiences and interactions I’ve had. When I come across someone I immediately want to judge, I try to remind myself: neither is theirs.
We’ve all had friends and teachers and cousins who have shaped us into who we are and what we care about. That means that WE can be the friends and teachers and cousins who inspire others. Who impact the stories others believe about the world. Who change what difference others make in the world. Who mold the future we create together. That is how powerful we are. That is how powerful our stories are.